Have you ever felt that an application requires additional features to be used optimally?
If so, at that point, you need a piece of software called a plugin.
What is a plugin? How can it be installed in other applications?
Just find the answer in the discussion below!
What is A Plugin?
Plugins are additional software that can be installed on the main application for optimal performance.
This additional software is complementary, so it will not change or damage the basic functions of the main application.
Instead, by installing a plugin, you can enjoy the benefits of features that were not previously available in the main application.
What you need to underline is, each application has its own plugin. So, the plugin cannot be used for cross applications.
The naming of the plugin for each application is different. Like the name extension for Google Chrome, add-ons for Mozilla, and plugins for the WordPress CMS.
Plugins for WordPress
WordPress is a CMS (Content Management System) most widely used to build and manage websites around the world.
This CMS comes with many templates and plugins that can be downloaded and installed for free.
The WordPress plugin itself is written in the PHP programming language which can be directly integrated with WordPress.
Well, as of the time this article was written, there were 59,557 plugins available on the page WordPress Plugins Directory and can be downloaded for free.
In addition to free plugins, there are also paid plugins made by third parties which will generally provide premium features.
Plugin Functions in WordPress
Plugins in WordPress make it easy for those of you who do not have a background in programming languages to manage websites easily. Thus, complex jobs can be executed with just one click.
Types of WordPress Plugins
As you already know, there are tens of thousands of plugins available to optimize WordPress, both free and paid.
Well, of the many plugins, they are grouped into 6 different types, namely:
1. SEO Plugins
SEO plugins are additional software that will help you create content that complies with SEO rules.
Once installed, the plugin will automatically provide a rating parameter for your content.
So that your content has a greater chance of being ranked early in the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages).
The most popular SEO plugins used include Yoast SEO (rating 5/5), Rank Math SEO (rating 5/5), and All in One SEO Pack (rating 4.5/5).
2. Security Plugins
Security plugins are additional software that serves to protect websites from cyber attacks.
Examples of security plugins that have a high rating are Really Simple SSL (rating 5/5), Wordfence (rating 4.5/5), and Jetpack (rating 4/5).
3. Backup Plugins
To avoid data loss, it is highly recommended for website owners to secure important data using the backup feature.
Some of the backup plugins that many users trust is Jetpack (rating 4/5), UpdraftPlus (rating 5/5), and Duplicator (rating 5/5).
4. Anti Spam Plugin
Have you ever found the comment field full of spam? Contains ambiguous words or junk links?
Of course it makes your site look very unprofessional.
To prevent this from happening, you can use anti-spam plugins such as Akismet Spam Protection (rating 4.5/5), Jetpack (rating 4/5), and Antispam Bee (rating 5/5).
5. Website Speed Booster Plugin
The loading speed of a website is influenced by many things such as the hosting package taken, the domain extension used, the amount of content, the number of multimedia files, and so on.
Well, the speed of loading a website turns out to be very influential on SEO optimization efforts.
Therefore, many users choose to use the Jetpack plugin (rating 4/5), WP Super Cache (rating 4.5/5), and W3 Total Cache (rating 4.5/5) to speed up website load times.
6. Social Media Plugins
Who doesn’t use social media in this digital age?
For that, it is very important to have sharing buttons to social media on your website.
So, anyone who feels moved by your content can easily share it through their social media.
Later this will have a direct effect on brand awareness and increase your website traffic.
Social media plugins that are widely used today include Blog2Social (rating 4.5/5), Social Media Share Buttons Popup & Pop Up Social Sharing Icons (rating 5/5), and Social Sharing plugin (rating 4.5/5). ).
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What to Look For When Choosing a Plugin
Although the plugin serves to optimize the performance of the main application, in this case it is WordPress, but you should not be careless in installing it.
If you are not careful in installing plugins, your website’s performance can decrease or even experience damage.
For that, before installing the plugin you should pay attention to:
1. Disk Capacity
Each plugin installation will take up a certain amount of disk space on the website.
Therefore, it is very important that you make sure that there is sufficient disk space to install new plugins.
Because a disk that is too full will slow down the load time of your website pages and increase the bounce back percentage.
2. Plugin Function
Then, you should also pay attention to the function of each plugin that will be installed.
Avoid installing plugins with similar functions because they can trigger errors when running.
Apart from triggering errors, installing a plugin with almost the same functionality will take up disk space for nothing.
3. Other Users Review
Just like when shopping online, you can ensure product quality through the review column. Similarly, what you should do when you will install a plugin.
It’s a good idea to use a plugin that has been trusted by other users. Even more so if you don’t have expertise in programming languages.
4. Software Code Composition
The next thing to consider in choosing a plugin is the software code.
It’s better to avoid plugins that are composed of unique software code and are rarely updated by their developers.
The reason is, plugins with features as described above have a higher probability of error.
Free Plugins Vs Paid Plugins
After knowing what points to pay attention to when choosing a plugin, you must also be wondering which plugin is better to use? Is it a free plugin or a paid plugin?
The answer is back to the needs and availability of your funds.
However, there are some things that can’t be found in free plugins such as premium functionality, 24/7 support, and complete documentation files.
Well, the thing to note is, to be able to use the free plugin you must use your own domain name and hosting service. Not a free hosting service for WordPress.
Once you have your own domain and hosting, you can immediately optimize your website with plugins and manage your website more easily.
What plugin do you want to install?
